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Flint holder question.

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Paul,
I tried the lead wrap in my L/R lock and it does in fact improve the sparks and it does knapp itself as well. My sparks are still red and not white. I would sure like to make it so that it throws white hot sparks. It's a brand new frizzen and it still only throws red sparks. I will try to heat it in the oven tonight like your article states to see if that helps.

Do you have anymore tips on getting the hot white sparks? I use Black English flint. Should I try to harden the frizzen with Kasenit?
 
No. Do not use Kasenit on your frizzen. The frizzen is made of an alloy, and you will not make it harder. By tempering it in your oven you might be able to improve the sparks. I did this with my frizzen and it helped. I think the color is often related to how balanced the springs are. Polish the contact surface between the frizzen's " boot heel", and th top of the frizzen spring arm where it rubs. Polish both parts. Then use a good grease to lubricate the joint. The test of a good lock is to remove the frizzen spring, close it and fire the cock. It should throw plenty of sparks with out the resistance of the frizzen spring. The frizzen spring's job is to keep the frizzen closed when you prime the pan. That is its only job. Its not there to apply some kind of indirect pressure to assist you in getting sparks from the face of the frizzen.

If re-tempering the frizzen does not improve matters, you may want to call the company and have them send you a new frizzen. Sometimes, they let some get through that were not properly heat treated for hardening. Most lay people will not have the equipment to properly harden the frizzen themselves. If you are friends with a local machine shop, or welding shop, they might do it for you. If you want to try that, PM me and I will take you through the process.

Paul
 
Thanks for that info Paul, i first have to get another gun that works properly. There`s a Cabela`s store 150 miles from me and we might just make the drive today to get another gun if they will do that. A guy will do anything for BP right. :thumbsup:
 
I found some pictures of the same gun i have on another site, there is nothing wrong with my gun, as you can see in the pic the hammer is off set to the inside.
Link
 
Up date, i got some Goex FFF and the rifle shoots great, too cold and windy to shoot much today.
Thanks for everyones help. :hatsoff:
 
I finally have white/yellow sparks now that i wrapped my flint in lead! And it looks like that frizzen is cock eyed. Cabelas will send you a new lock easily. They sent me 4 pistols before i told them i want my money back! Something scary about shooting a pistol and the barrel falls off every time.
 
Kentuckywindage said:
I finally have white/yellow sparks now that i wrapped my flint in lead! And it looks like that frizzen is cock eyed. Cabelas will send you a new lock easily. They sent me 4 pistols before i told them i want my money back! Something scary about shooting a pistol and the barrel falls off every time.

Does Cabela`s carry parts for there guns ?
I will try this one out for a while and see how it goes.
 
I saw a dramatic improvement in sparks with the lead wrap. Although they are still of red color they are much more numerous and as I stated the flint does indeed knapp itself.

There is alot of information out there about this stuff and one just has to sift through it and try it out. One thing is for sure I don't know enough about metals and heat treating to attempt to do much on my own. I guess that's the fun with flintlock shooting; learn as you go.
 
im not sure if cabelas carries the parts or what but they get them to you fast. If you're having good spark and the gun is going off fast and the flints arnt breaking, i'd just stay with what you have.
 
A learning experience indeed :)
I`ve been out of it for around ten years, had several of the Colt pistols and the last rifle was a TC Hawken 50 cal flintlock. That gun had a real fast lock on it and its favorite diet was maxi balls. If i remember right i think i could shoot 12 before swabbing the barrel.
I still have some maxi`s left and i`m going to give them a try in this new rifle. Seems two or three is about the limit with the RB and patch.
There`s probably some good info here to extend that number i`m guessing.
 
paulvallandigham said:
Pitchypine. YOu are going to get opinions all over the map about which is better to wrap a flint in. In an empty gun, in a dark room, wrap the flint in lead, tighten the cock screw, fire the gun a few times to seat the flint in the lead, then tighten the flint again. Then hold the gun so you can look at the pan from th eside, and fire the gun. Look at the amount of sparks, and the color. Look at what they do when they hit the pan. Look where they hit the pan.

Then take the flint out of the cock, and wrap it in leather. Use whatever somebody tells you is the best. Rawhide, tanned hide, brain tanned, chemical tanned, thick, thin, whatever. seat the flint as you did with the lead lap by firing it the same number of times, and tightening the cockscrew down again. In the dark, fire the gun held out again so you can look at the frizzen and pan again from the side. Check the number of sparks, and color. How long do the sparks last before burning out? Where do they hit the pan?

Then make up your own decision. My personal experience, and that of several of the members here who have tried their own test as I have described indicates that most get better sparks( more of them for each strike, and they are hotter sparks with lead, than with leather. The sparks with the leather wrap are orange in color, usually less than a dozen, and they burn out after bouncing once in the pan. With the lead wrap, the sparks are too many to count- a shower- they are white hot, and they bounce at least twice in the pan before burning out.

The second benefit of using lead is that it does not allow the flint to rebound off the frizzen, causing chatter marks or grooves in the face of the frizzen, that will eat flints, and cause misfires in the future. That rebound is the same as having a shock absorber behind the flint, and allows the flint to first cut into the surface of the flint, but before it can begin to scrape off bits of steel to become sparks, it rebounds, and takes some of those chips with it, clogging the edge. In about five shots, you will begin having misfires, unless you knapp a new edge. Knapping destroys too much of the edge, and shortens flint life dramatically. Flints are expensive.

If your flint strikes the face of the frizzen at between 55 and 60 degrees, measured along the bottom of the flint, and the face of the frizzen, the flint, wrapped in lead, will knapp itself on each firing, and there will be no misfires from clogged edges, and no need to haul out that knapping hammer, or knife, or whatever someone tells you to use. I will send you my old one if you really want it. I don't use it any more, and haven't in more than 20 years. flint life is much longer, and getting 80 to 150 shots per flint is not impossible, depending on how strong your main and frizzen springs are. They can be lightened to increase flint life, too.

You might benefit from reading my article on tuning flintlocks.
[url] www.chuckhawks.com/flintlocks.htm[/url]

Have fun, and welcome to the world of flintlocks. Trade that substitute powder and buy some Goex Black powder. Only Black Powder will work in Flintlocks. One man here has a large quantity of subs which he is burning up, by using a starter load of black powder in his flint lock. Takes a little longer to load, but you can burn up that stuff if you can't find someone to buy the rest of what you have. BP is much cheaper than the subs are, and less corrosive.

Great article paulvallandigham, thanks :hatsoff:
 
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Check this sight for some info[url] http://members.aye.net/~bspen/flintlockfaq.html[/url]
 
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Rebel said:
Check this sight for some info[url] http://members.aye.net/~bspen/flintlockfaq.html[/quote][/url]

Thanks Rebel, will check it out :hatsoff:
 
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I have a couple more questions about this Pedersoli lock, your alls Patience is appreciated.
I like everything about this gun other than the extra wide frizzen and the hammer not being lined up center with said frizzen.
How important is it that the flint strike the frizzen across its whole width, it is not possible to achieve that with a flint of one inch or less in width.
I bought a agate musket flint that is wide enough to strike the full width but it cost 7.50 each and it looks plenty large in the gun but sparks real well.
So question is do i use the normal size flint of around 7/8 th and not worry about it striking the whole width of the frizzen or stick with the musket flint.
Or have a different lock put in the gun?
Thanks for all opinions.
 
Regular 7/8" flints work fine in mine and my partner's Frontiers (cosmetic differences from the Blue Ridge). We've also used slightly undersized 1" ones and long 3/4" ones, and they worked OK until they got too short, but we have a decent supply of 7/8" ones now, and just stick with those. The wider flints usually wind up mounted a little offset, but they work fine riding side-saddle. You'll often find that, as flints wear or chip, they're rarely actually brearing all the way across through the full length of the strike, anyway. These big locks are much less fussy about rocks than the little lock on my Pedersoli Kentucky.

Joel
 
Thanks for the reply, i`m not trying to be a pain in the butt about the lock i just like to understand how something was intended to be used. I also hope i`m not being the laughing stock of the board asking about it.
The lock is made with a large pan and a very wide frizzen, what they failed to do was too bring the hammer out to line up too center of the frizzen, maybe they did it that way so they could use a lot of the same parts for the flint lock and the percussion lock.
The musket flint covers the whole width of the frizzen and has to be off set to the out side quite a bit.
If one is too use the black flints of a inch or less in width they will have to live with it i guess, the gun came witha 7/8 th flint in it so the builder must of known it wouldn`t strike the width of the frizzen.
I`ve seen pics of frizzens of other guns that i could clearly see the marks from the flint that don`t go all the way across the frizzen also .
Sometimes when ya buy something and there is something you don`t think is right it bothers ya until someone convinces ya that it`s no big deal just use it. Harleys are that way, when you get your first one the motor sounds like it`s coming apart but after you talk too enough other owners they tell you that it`s normal and to just ride it.
Thanks again for the help. :v
 
Want to add after measuring it all out it would take a flint of one inch width off set too cover the whole width of the frizzen, in my gun anyway.
No problem there as one inch black flints are available. :)
 
PitchyPine said:
Just got my new Cabela`s blue ridge rifle, it came with a piece of lead that holds the flint in the jaws. Is that a good system or is leather a better way to go.
Thanks and plan on posting a pic. as soon as i can get out and take a few shots. :)

PitchPine,
very nice rifle!! How do you like her? Lead I use it as well!! If you need another you can make one out of one of your lead balls flattened and cut too size. I keep a piece of leather has a back up spare in my possibles bag. Now I have one flinter that likes the leather better then the lead you may want to try both to see which gives you the largest spark pattern.

Juggernaut
 
Juggernaut said:
PitchyPine said:
Just got my new Cabela`s blue ridge rifle, it came with a piece of lead that holds the flint in the jaws. Is that a good system or is leather a better way to go.
Thanks and plan on posting a pic. as soon as i can get out and take a few shots. :)

PitchPine,
very nice rifle!! How do you like her? Lead I use it as well!! If you need another you can make one out of one of your lead balls flattened and cut too size. I keep a piece of leather has a back up spare in my possibles bag. Now I have one flinter that likes the leather better then the lead you may want to try both to see which gives you the largest spark pattern.

Juggernaut

I really like the rifle, love the long slender look of it. Are there any other manufactures that sell that type of rifle, i wouldn`t mind buying another one with fancier wood.
Also a person could use a 7/8th flint in this gun, i just figured a one inch one would completely cover the frizzen better.
I`m going to do some shooting with her this afternoon after it warms up a little and see if i can tighten up my groups a little. :)
 
PitchyPine,

A friend bought a Cabela's Blue Ridge and found that the stock was splintered on the forend. He called Cabelas the next day and they told him to send it back. In a couple days his new rifle showed up. GW
 

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